About the book “A Cry For Justice”
A Cry for Justice is the title of Jeff and Anna’s book which we hope to see published this year. A Cry for Justice: Recognizing Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Abuse in the Church and Rendering Aid and Justice to their Victims was written by Anna Wood and Jeff Crippen to educate the evangelical church about the mentality and tactics of abusers who so often hide in the church behind the mask of “saintliness.” Jeff Crippen is the pastor of Christ Reformation Church in Tillamook, Oregon and has been a pastor since 1983. For the past three years, Jeff has studied the subject of domestic violence and abuse. Anna Wood is a survivor of many years of domestic violence and has been active in blogging about the topic in an effort to help other victims. Abuse victims have often been dealt great injustice by their fellow Christians and their pastors because of widespread ignorance and due to the deceptiveness of the abuser. It is our fervent desire to see all of this corrected, for the glory of Christ and the good of His people.
Let us also tell you that we are conservative, Bible-believing Christians who hold to the solas of the reformation. We embrace Reformed theology, and fully subscribe to the inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures. In other words, we are not social-gospel people who hold to some kind of un-biblical view of manhood and womanhood. Why do we say this? Because it seems that among our own churches, that is – churches who are truly evangelical and hold to the authority of the Scriptures, anyone who begins to speak to the subject of domestic violence and abuse is often labeled a “liberal” who must necessarily be part of a spreading man-hating conspiracy! Let us assure you that we are not.
Endorsement:
I’ve been given the privilege of reading the manuscript of this book before it is released, and I can tell you it is fantastic. May God give strength to your arms and your pens!
There is much need for such a book. Christians have ignored (or been unaware of) this problem for many years and it needs to be exposed and rectified in our churches.
Hi, Bev,
You are so right. This has been ignored for far too long. Praying daily for you. : ) Anna
I’m looking forward to seeing this book, as I went through trying to pastor in a nasty situation. I did not do well, and it grieves me, though the wife has forgiven me. The still unrepentant husband now considers me his enemy. I’ll be interested in learning from you both how to do better should this come before our church again. Which, may God in His mercy forbid.
I hope you folks will notify me of the publication date.
Phil – Thank you for your openness. You know, the fact that we learn virtually NOTHING about abuse, about sociopathic personalities, controlling and abusive people who will oppose us in ministry because they really aren’t Christians at all – the fact that we learn nothing about these things in seminary sets us up to totally botch a situation, especially an abuse case. How many times in seminary did some godly, experienced pastor step in front of his MDiv students and say “men, half or more of you aren’t going to make it. You are going to be persecuted if you are godly men who want to faithfully serve Christ in His church. Let me tell you some of the things that are going to happen to you, and about some of the evil people who are going to oppose your ministries”? I never heard those things once. Never. Yet, doesn’t Christ give us tons of such warnings and instruction in His Word? So just what is it exactly that we have come to think trains men for the pastorate? Vision-casting and church growth techniques?
Everything I have learned that has equipped me for ministry (except Hebrew and Greek) I learned in the trenches. Not in seminary.
Blessings in Christ,
Jeff
I should proof BEFORE posting. “…in A nasty situation.”
I am so relieved to know there are Bible-believing leaders who are addressing domestic violence. I am looking forward to reading your book. I was married for 32 years to a man who claimed to be godly. He started verbally abusing me the day after we got married. When he “got caught” through my seeking help or others observing how he treated me, he would cry, confess and seemingly change. I can’t tell you how many times I said, “he’s changed”! But, as I just realized, his confessions and seeming repentance, never came because he believed he was sinning against his family. He always had excuses and reasons why he did…….. We separated 3 times and got back together. The 4th time, when he physically abused our 15 year old son, that was IT! After 2.5 years of not living under oppression, I am living in the freedom to be who God created me to be and so are my children! I recently talked with two leaders in my church about setting up resources and people to help other women in our church who need freedom from their abusers. These leaders affirmed that God is leading me to be part of this ministry and even though I don’t feel healed enough to truly help others, I am open to how God wants to use my past suffering and journey of healing. My experience over the years with church leaders (I am a conservative, bible-believing follower of Jesus), is either their head is in the sand or they don’t want to look at abuse in all its forms. I am glad to have come across your blog.
Kay – great to hear from you and to learn a bit of your story. Yep, the abuser is a master at false repentance and playing the victim. As soon as he says the words “but I’ve changed” you can know for sure that he hasn’t. I would very much enjoy hearing your experiences with church leaders if you would like to tell them. You can contact me on the blog here, or my email is swordtrowel@gmail.com The more stories I hear from survivors of abuse, the more I learn. We hope to send our book manuscript to the publisher in just a couple of weeks. I don’t know how long it takes a publisher to put together a printing after that, but hopefully it won’t be too long. Thanks very much for your encouragement and we hope that you keep connected with us here. Jeff.
Dear Kay
a little late to reply to you but thanks for coming to the blog and I hope you keep coming back. The word “…but…” inserted after a confession suggests strongly that the confession was not genuine. Many victims say that the clincher, the deal breaker, was when the abuser started directly abusing one of their children. Mothers can be fierce lionesses when it comes to protecting their kids! I was there too. I got my daughter out of his clutches two years after my final separation. He had been abusing her when she went on visitation. I disobeyed the Family Court visitation orders from when she was 11 till she turned 18, and he never took me back to court for non-compliance. In that, I was lucky.
I am new here; there is so much information. I was not abused in the church, but found a lack of support and have not found a church here where I live in Oregon to call our home since we left the abuse in WA state. We had been in a church, but not very long. Then after we moved here, I saw on the internet that the youth pastor of the church in WA was arrested for molesting one of the youths. I am glad we didn’t continue there but I continue to pray for the people who are still there.
Thank you for visiting us Teresa. Welcome. Yes, there is a lot of information here. It is the product of many abuse victims suffering for many years, some of whom are still not free from their abuser. If you are like I used to be, you probably have much to learn about the mentality and tactics of abuse. I would highly recommend that you read Lundy Bancroft’s book Why Does He Do That? It helped me a great deal. The Bible-believing, conservative Christian church (like the one I pastor in Tillamook), is not doing a good job at all in exposing abusers and rescuing their victims. Many of them sit right in the pews of most of our churches. We are not believing these victims when they come to us, we give them bad counsel, and we end up being duped by their abuser. Abuse is not just any sin. It is highly deceptive. Abusers are quite capable of being pastors, or “pillars” in their churches and swaying the church’s opinion in their favor. We hope that you will continue to read here and learn along with the rest of us. Oh, and I hope you will be able to find a church. If you email me at swordtrowel@gmail.com perhaps I know of a church in your area. Blessings in Christ, Jeff